


Don Alejandro

by Sky_Notes



Category: Zorro (TV 1957)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-16 00:27:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29692230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sky_Notes/pseuds/Sky_Notes
Summary: This is a one shot about Don Alejandro and Diego’s relationship before Alejandro knows about Zorro. It takes place after “Zorro’s Romance”.
Relationships: Alejandro de la Vega & Diego de la Vega
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Don Alejandro

**Author's Note:**

> For anyone who needs a refresher, that’s the episode where Don Nacho Torres goes home to see his family before running for sanctuary at the Mission. Capitan Monastario surrounds the hacienda, and it’s up to Diego/Zorro to get him out of Monastario’s trap. This takes place the next day. According to my timeline, it takes place on October 28, 1820.

Don Alejandro fumed as he looked toward his son’s door. “Does he do nothing but sleep? Certainly he had to get out of bed to get to class on time. Or did he skip any morning classes he had? Did this habit develop in the months he spent on the ship coming home?” Don Alejandro met his son at the door with countless questions the previous night. Diego dismissed them all, saying he wanted to go to bed. Last night, Don Alejandro clenched his jaw and kept his mouth shut. This morning? That would be a different story. He pounded on his son’s bedroom door. A moan came from the other side. “Diego, you’ve slept long enough! I expect you downstairs in five minutes. I want an explanation for yesterday’s behavior.” He listened for any sign of movement. It was feeble, but there. His son would come downstairs.  


Five minutes to the second, Diego came down the stairs slowly. “The pace you move at, people would think you’re the old man, not me.” Alejandro mentally kicked himself. What a wonderful way to start a conversation!  


“What was it that was so urgent you had to wake me father?” Diego took a seat on the patio.  


The boy looked so exhausted Don Alejandro wondered if he’d been right to wake him. “Where were you yesterday? Every time I looked for you, the servants told me you were out. Then when you finally came home, you gave me no explanation before retiring to your room. I don’t know what you got away with at that university, but here you’re still my son and I expect the same respect I always have.”  


“I’m sorry, father, I meant no disrespect. After the day I had yesterday, I was exhausted and needed rest.” It wasn’t a lie. Diego really needed rest after riding as Zorro and keeping Don Nacho away from the Comandante. At least this time he could honestly tell his father someone had tied him up. That would get him off his case for the moment.  


“Oh? And what kind of day was that? I assume you spent the day calling on our friends and neighbors. How fatiguing it is to accept the hospitality of our friends all day.” Don Alejandro glared at his son.  


Diego fought with the anger that rose at his father’s accusation. This alternative version of himself would hardly react with anger. He forced his eyes to the floor. “I was at Don Nacho’s. Monastario was there. I was trying to help Don Nacho escape.”  


Don Alejandro’s eyes widened, and his jaw dropped. Instantly he regained his composure. “In what way did you try to help him escape?”  


Diego gained some satisfaction from his father’s more subdued line of questions. He looked up. “Well... The Comandante made it clear he wanted Señorita Elena as his bride. I serenaded her…”  


“Bah! Love songs when you should’ve challenged the scoundrel to a duel? What help is that?”  


Diego dropped his eyes to the floor. “I’m sorry, father. It’s all I could think to do.” It hurt Diego to lie to his father. He hoped Don Alejandro would misread it as sincerity.  


“I don’t want to hear anymore. I’m riding into town. See if you can remember what it means to be a De La Vega while I’m gone.” Alejandro turned before he could see the hurt in his son’s eyes.  


The ride into town cleared his head. Don Alejandro sent the servants to fetch what they needed while he grabbed a bite at the tavern. Much to his dismay, Sergeant Garcia spotted him and sat down.  


“Don Alejandro! I feel I’d be doing you a disservice if I let you eat alone.” Sergeant Garcia poured some wine into his glass.  


“You might do me a disservice by not joining me, but you’re not doing that wine bottle any favors.” Don Alejandro watched as his words sank in. If Sergeant Garcia was offended, it didn’t last long.  


Sergeant Garcia took a big gulp of wine. “How glad you must be to have Diego home at last.” Garcia didn’t realize the nerve he just hit.  


“I thought I would be.” Alejandro shoved some food in his mouth before he could say more  


“What do you mean?” Sergeant Garcia noted the frustration in the old Don’s eyes.  


“He’s not the boy I sent to Spain.” Don Alejandro looked over at Garcia. His son had been friends with Garcia since before the man joined the army. He’d never understood their friendship. “Why am I telling you all this? It’s not important.”  


“He seems different from before he went to Spain, yet he’s the same too.” Sergeant Garcia agreed.  


“I don’t understand it. How did I get a poet for a son? His mother was more of a fighter than he is.”  


Garcia spoke up for his friend. “You didn’t hear it from me but... He tried to help Don Nacho yesterday. But I didn’t say that or the Comandante would have us all arrested.”  


“By playing his guitar! He told me.”  


Anyone could see the disgust on Don Alejandro’s face. The Sergeant continued, “That’s not all he did. Monastario sent me to search the cellar. Diego joined me. We had a few drinks and Don Nacho escaped. He was in the cellar the whole time. Between you and me, I quite enjoyed being distracted from my duties with wine.”  


Alejandro looked at Garcia. He thought “Is Sergeant Garcia really trying to tell me that Diego helped Don Nacho escape by having a few drinks with him?”  


Garcia continued, “And when the Comandante came to, Diego was tied up in the wine cellar. Apparently he’d tried to capture Zorro after the fox knocked the Comandante out cold. Didn’t Diego tell you?”  


“No, I...”  


“You missed quite a sight! Don Nacho dressed up as Monastario. He had us all fooled. When we finally realized our mistake, Zorro helped him escape. I wonder how Torres knew to dress up as the Comandante?”  


Don Alejandro suddenly had a flashback to Diego’s childhood. His son put on one of Rosarita’s dresses to avoid coming inside to do his lessons. Had Don Nacho’s actions been Diego’s idea? “Perhaps I was too hard on him this morning. Thank you for joining me, Sergeant Garcia. I must be off. The servants are finished with the shopping and I need to get home.”  


Garcia was sad to see Don Alejandro go. Even worse, he dumped the last of the wine into his mug.  


The moment Don Alejandro stepped foot in his hacienda, he looked for his son. Diego lounged in the sala strumming on his guitar. When Alejandro entered, Diego rose to leave. “No, don’t leave on my account.” Alejandro sat his hat on the table. “I ran into Sergeant Garcia. He filled me in on yesterday’s events. It appears even the Sergeant realizes you did more than strum your guitar yesterday. I acted rashly.”  


“Gracias father.” Diego sat back down and began fiddling with his guitar.  


“Was it your idea for Don Nacho to dress up as the Comandante?” Don Alejandro watched his son’s expression closely.  


“I may have suggested his uniform was the only one the soldiers wouldn’t shoot at. They did what they wanted with the information.” Diego smiled as he thought back to a time he put on one of his friend’s dresses to get out of his lessons.  


“Some things never change.” Don Alejandro thought to himself.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I was going to have the conversation about Diego’s actions happen between Torres and Alejandro, but then realized Torres would be at the mission. So Garcia was slightly more aware of Diego’s actions than I probably would’ve written him otherwise.


End file.
